1. In the space below, describe the stasis at the beginning of Zoot Suit. In other words, “Where are we?” “When is it (time, day, and year)?” “Who are the people involved?” “What is the dramatic situation in which the characters find themselves as the play unfolds?”
In the beginning of Zoot Suit, it takes place in Los Angeles in the year 1943. The people involved in the beginning were El Pachuco,The 38th Street Gang which included Henry Reyna, Della Barrios. A sailor called Swabbie and along with the his girlfriend Manchuka and the Downey Gang were also involved in the beginning as well. The dramatic situation that the characters find themselves as the play unfolds was there being complications with the Downey Gang and the 38th Street Gang when one of the members from, Rafas, pushed Henry's brother.
2. What is the intrusion that causes the stasis to be broken and the dramatic action to develop, often at an increasingly rapid pace, to the end of the play?
I believe the intrusion that caused the stasis to be broken and dramatic action to develop was when the jury found Henry, Jose, Thomas, Ismael, and so forth guilt of murder in the first and second degrees. This is because it becomes the first step in creating the support for showing the discrimination in the government system. This causes more people to see how far the government is will to go to winning the war; even if it means harassing the minority.
3. Why do the events of the play take place at this particular time and place? In other words, what is the unique factor which is out of the ordinary that causes a turn of events to take place?
The unique factor was that this was during the time where Mexican were going through discrimination based upon what they were wearing. This was also around the time that WW2 was still going on. Many Mexicans including Henry didn't want to join the military because according to Pachuco, why fight for a country that doesn't like who you are or how you dress to a point where you're harassed about it.
4. State the dramatic questions that must be answered by the end of the play? (Ordinarily, the dramatic question shares a close connection with the intrustion.)
The dramatic question(s) that must be answered by the end of the play would be "Will they be able to get out of jail legally?" and "How will this affect the rest of the minority groups?"
5. Use Henry to answer the questions concerning character. Ball says, a character is revealed by what he/she does, ie. The dramatic actions that are taken. Examine what the character wants (NOTE: In Wedding Band the wants of Julia are in flux. They change as the play progresses). The wants of a character often encounter obstacles that get in the way of achieving those wants. Ball says there are 4 kinds of obstacles that frustrate the wants of a charcter. They are: a. Me against myself, b. Me against another individual, c. Me against society (that is law, social norms, etc.) and, d. Me against fate, the universe, natural forces, God or the gods. In answering these questions be sure to point to the particular obstacles that demonstrate these obstacles.
In the beginning of the play it seems like he wants to look out for his brother; however, as you continue to read you come to a point where you realise Henry wants to join the Marines but Pachuco asks "him why fight for a country that's currently harassing you?". At another point Henry wanted to marry Della Barrios, his girlfriend, after he came back from the Marines, but Henry changed his mind when he developed feelings for Alice Bloomfield while in jail. He was stuck between someone he's loved for a while and someone he developed feels for during a time where he was struggling to get through. The main obstacle Henry was facing was "Me against society". This was the one thing that caused his life to be turned upside down. He was arrested under false charges because the cop thought he stole his father's car when he didn't. The cop was also society during this time as well. This is because most of the society were terrified, hated, or already had an opinion, mostly negative, about zoot suiters like Henry. They believed he was some cold-hearted, mean, gangster leader. What they didn't know was Henry was more of a family person and is really loyal to his loved ones, including his friends.
6. The most important information in most plays takes place during theatrical moments. Identify the most theatrical moments in Zoot Suit. There are more than one.
There are a lot of theatrical moments in Zoot Suit. The one of the scenes I found theatrical was The Interrogation. This when Henry was being interrogated by Sgt. Smith and Lt. Edwards. It was like they were playing good cop, bad cop in order to get information out of Henry. This scene actually made me mad because of how they decide they want to use lies and violence to try and get information out of Henry. I never liked police who would use their advantages as a reason to get an answer they want even though the person they are interrogating may not have the answer they want. Another theatrical moment was all of the court scenes
7. Provide at least three examples of images in Zoot Suit. How does the title of the play help us understand the images in the play? (Remember Ball says that, “An image is the use of something we know that tells us something we don’t know.” He goes on to say that images invoke and expand, rather than define and limit.”)
One example of images would be when Della was describing the event that happened at Sleepy Lagoon. As a reader, or audience, you are able to get more information about what happened that night. You realise that the main reason why things are not going well is due to the Downey Gang creating heaps of trouble for the 38th Street Gang. However, what I don't get is why the police officers didn't arrest the Downey Gang instead of the 38th Street Gang. Another example of image would be the beginning of the play where in the stage direction El Pachuco is putting on the zoot suit and acting like the stereotypical pachuco. It gives the reader a chance to picture what he is doing and what his presence is like. It would also indicates how others would physically see pachucos. The last example of image
8. Ordinarily, there are many themes in most plays. List the themes in Zoot Suit.
I think a theme that stood out to me was acceptance. The acceptance would be between between Henry and his self. This is probably because
9. Most American plays have something to do with family and/or family relationships. What does family have to do with the dramatic action in Zoot Suit?
To me, it seems like family relationships in Zoot Suit was a positive motivator in Henry's life. Henry's relationship with his family also included his friends because he was very loyal to both groups, so I decided that his friends were included as his family as well. This would explain why Henry would choose Della over Alice as the person he loves because he knows this would be a better choice for him and his family. He also know it would create less social problems because if he would have chose Alice instead of Della than people in his community and society would have constantly asked him why he was with a white jew. Family relationships was also one of the relationships in Henry's life that he had a lot of loyalty to. so compared to anything else Henry would probably die protecting his family and everything is stands for.
In the beginning of Zoot Suit, it takes place in Los Angeles in the year 1943. The people involved in the beginning were El Pachuco,The 38th Street Gang which included Henry Reyna, Della Barrios. A sailor called Swabbie and along with the his girlfriend Manchuka and the Downey Gang were also involved in the beginning as well. The dramatic situation that the characters find themselves as the play unfolds was there being complications with the Downey Gang and the 38th Street Gang when one of the members from, Rafas, pushed Henry's brother.
2. What is the intrusion that causes the stasis to be broken and the dramatic action to develop, often at an increasingly rapid pace, to the end of the play?
I believe the intrusion that caused the stasis to be broken and dramatic action to develop was when the jury found Henry, Jose, Thomas, Ismael, and so forth guilt of murder in the first and second degrees. This is because it becomes the first step in creating the support for showing the discrimination in the government system. This causes more people to see how far the government is will to go to winning the war; even if it means harassing the minority.
3. Why do the events of the play take place at this particular time and place? In other words, what is the unique factor which is out of the ordinary that causes a turn of events to take place?
The unique factor was that this was during the time where Mexican were going through discrimination based upon what they were wearing. This was also around the time that WW2 was still going on. Many Mexicans including Henry didn't want to join the military because according to Pachuco, why fight for a country that doesn't like who you are or how you dress to a point where you're harassed about it.
4. State the dramatic questions that must be answered by the end of the play? (Ordinarily, the dramatic question shares a close connection with the intrustion.)
The dramatic question(s) that must be answered by the end of the play would be "Will they be able to get out of jail legally?" and "How will this affect the rest of the minority groups?"
5. Use Henry to answer the questions concerning character. Ball says, a character is revealed by what he/she does, ie. The dramatic actions that are taken. Examine what the character wants (NOTE: In Wedding Band the wants of Julia are in flux. They change as the play progresses). The wants of a character often encounter obstacles that get in the way of achieving those wants. Ball says there are 4 kinds of obstacles that frustrate the wants of a charcter. They are: a. Me against myself, b. Me against another individual, c. Me against society (that is law, social norms, etc.) and, d. Me against fate, the universe, natural forces, God or the gods. In answering these questions be sure to point to the particular obstacles that demonstrate these obstacles.
In the beginning of the play it seems like he wants to look out for his brother; however, as you continue to read you come to a point where you realise Henry wants to join the Marines but Pachuco asks "him why fight for a country that's currently harassing you?". At another point Henry wanted to marry Della Barrios, his girlfriend, after he came back from the Marines, but Henry changed his mind when he developed feelings for Alice Bloomfield while in jail. He was stuck between someone he's loved for a while and someone he developed feels for during a time where he was struggling to get through. The main obstacle Henry was facing was "Me against society". This was the one thing that caused his life to be turned upside down. He was arrested under false charges because the cop thought he stole his father's car when he didn't. The cop was also society during this time as well. This is because most of the society were terrified, hated, or already had an opinion, mostly negative, about zoot suiters like Henry. They believed he was some cold-hearted, mean, gangster leader. What they didn't know was Henry was more of a family person and is really loyal to his loved ones, including his friends.
6. The most important information in most plays takes place during theatrical moments. Identify the most theatrical moments in Zoot Suit. There are more than one.
There are a lot of theatrical moments in Zoot Suit. The one of the scenes I found theatrical was The Interrogation. This when Henry was being interrogated by Sgt. Smith and Lt. Edwards. It was like they were playing good cop, bad cop in order to get information out of Henry. This scene actually made me mad because of how they decide they want to use lies and violence to try and get information out of Henry. I never liked police who would use their advantages as a reason to get an answer they want even though the person they are interrogating may not have the answer they want. Another theatrical moment was all of the court scenes
7. Provide at least three examples of images in Zoot Suit. How does the title of the play help us understand the images in the play? (Remember Ball says that, “An image is the use of something we know that tells us something we don’t know.” He goes on to say that images invoke and expand, rather than define and limit.”)
One example of images would be when Della was describing the event that happened at Sleepy Lagoon. As a reader, or audience, you are able to get more information about what happened that night. You realise that the main reason why things are not going well is due to the Downey Gang creating heaps of trouble for the 38th Street Gang. However, what I don't get is why the police officers didn't arrest the Downey Gang instead of the 38th Street Gang.
Another example of image would be the beginning of the play where in the stage direction El Pachuco is putting on the zoot suit and acting like the stereotypical pachuco. It gives the reader a chance to picture what he is doing and what his presence is like. It would also indicates how others would physically see pachucos.
The last example of image
8. Ordinarily, there are many themes in most plays. List the themes in Zoot Suit.
I think a theme that stood out to me was acceptance. The acceptance would be between between Henry and his self. This is probably because
9. Most American plays have something to do with family and/or family relationships. What does family have to do with the dramatic action in Zoot Suit?
To me, it seems like family relationships in Zoot Suit was a positive motivator in Henry's life. Henry's relationship with his family also included his friends because he was very loyal to both groups, so I decided that his friends were included as his family as well. This would explain why Henry would choose Della over Alice as the person he loves because he knows this would be a better choice for him and his family. He also know it would create less social problems because if he would have chose Alice instead of Della than people in his community and society would have constantly asked him why he was with a white jew. Family relationships was also one of the relationships in Henry's life that he had a lot of loyalty to. so compared to anything else Henry would probably die protecting his family and everything is stands for.